Naseeruddin Shah, one of India’s most celebrated actors, recently spoke out about the misinformation surrounding the historical figure of Akbar in Indian history books. In an interview Shah expressed his concerns about how historical inaccuracies can affect public perception and the challenges of creating historical dramas in India.
There is no such thing as objective history, according to actor Naseeruddin Shah, thus portraying it on television or in the pages of history books will always be difficult and require far more depth than most people are prepared to provide. Shah will be next seen as King Akbar in the upcoming ZEE5 original series Taj: Divided by Blood, which aims to be a revelatory tale about the “inner workings and succession drama” that played out in the chambers of the Mughal Empire.
A interesting subject in the nation has been history since it has nearly always sparked demonstrations and, in some cases, even violence due to concerns that history will be changed under the cover of artistic freedom. In the interview Naseruddin Shah opened up about how his idea about Akbar changed while reading more about him and playing the Mughal Emperor in Taj: Divided By Blood.
In an interview Naseeruddin Shah said “I suppose they are difficult because you have to take sides. There is no such thing as an objective history. History is written by the victors, and you have to read between the lines. I think it is difficult to make historicals with the kind of nuance that they deserve. It’s easy to make a grand spectacle with hundreds of elephants and horses and so on.
“But to understand these people as human beings, I think is more difficult. Yeah. And then you run the risk of offending people, but I don’t think Taj: Divided by Blood is going to offend anyone. It presents an original, non-Indian perception of this dynasty.”
Naseeruddin Shah said that his own understanding of who Akbar was and who he was as a person has evolved over the years. However, he is irritated by the prevailing misinformation about Akbar, particularly that he was a ruler who wanted to start his own religion.
“My understanding was initially that of any student who studied history in the 50s or early 60s, in the wake of independence when the British influence was still very strong. We had Irish teachers, English instructors. The picture he painted was always of a benevolent, kind, broad-minded, progressive ruler. His desire to start a new religion flies in the ointment. We read about it in history books, which are utter nonsense Is.
““I have checked this with authoritative historians and Akbar never did attempt to start a new religion. This is a fact which was in our history books called the Din-e Elahi. But Akbar never used the word Din-e Elahi, ever. He called it Wahdat-e Elahi, which means oneness of the creator. That no matter who you worship, in what form you worship him, you’re worshipping the creator. You may worship a stone, you may worship a crucifix, you may bow your head to the Kaaba, you may worship the rising sun and do what you like, but you are worshipping one and the same thing. That was his belief. This is what I found out.”
Shah said he went to the root of the misinformation and found that the term Din-i Ilahi came from the historian Abul Fazl, “who did not like Akbar much.” He wrote about it, which is translated into English as ‘Divine Faith’.
“The divine faith was then translated into Farsi as Din-e Elahi, it’s not a term Akbar ever used. It’s like those South Indian films which are remade in Hindi and then remade in the South! That was the big discovery about Akbar that I made, and I had to speak to the writers about it. Luckily, my objections were upheld.”
However, his understanding of Akbar grew further when he signed up for Taj: Divided by Blood, as he got to know a side of the Mughal emperor that he was not aware of.
“Akbar was not only a soft-hearted, vulnerable man, he was also very passionate, sexually driven, ferocious, merciless warrior. And must have been a great lover. I mean, he had hundreds of concubines and to keep each of them happy must have been some job! I don’t know if all of them were happy though. But I played him, to find the human being within this grandeur,” he added.
The ensemble cast of the show includes Aditi Rao Hydari as Anarkali, Aashim Gulati as Prince Salim, Taha Shah as Prince Murad, Sandhya Mridul as Queen Jodha Bai, Zareena Wahab as Queen Salima,Rahul Bose as Mirza Hakim and Dharmendra as Sheikh Salim Chisti.